Sunday, March 30, 2014

Next Thursday, April 10th, 2014 is the day every NCAA hockey fan in the upper Midwest had hoped for since the addition of the NCHC and Big 10 this season, a MN vs. UND match-up. On the line is a trip to the national title game.

This is a rivalry that dates way back, but I am going to highlight some of the more exciting games in recent history, and a couple of older events between the two schools as well.

We will start back in 1979 in the national championship game. The then Fighting Sioux would match-up against the Gophers in a national title game for the first time in school history. The game, who many thought UND should have won, went into overtime and Minnesota native Neal Broten would score the game winner to earn Minnesota their third national championship.

Moving along to more recent times, one can't forget their many battles in the Final Five or even just in the regular season. We first go back to 2007 at Mariucci Arena. There is just over a minute left in the first period and the Sioux are down 3-2. Defenseman Robbie Bina clears the puck from the bottom of the circles, and 180 feet later, the puck is sitting behind Gopher goalie Jeff Frazee. I do believe that this is still the longest goal scored in NCAA history still, correct me if I am wrong.

Later in 2007 at the Final Five, Minnesota would counter this fluky Sioux goal with an overtime victory over the Sioux in the championship game. Trying to avoid an icing call, now Winnipeg Jets player, Blake Wheeler, would do a Superman like dive and chip the puck over the shoulder of JP Lamoureux to win the game. This was also the very first UND Gopher game that I ever attended. Unfortunately for me, I was young and influential so with how big of a Gopher fan my dad is, I was cheering for the dark side, however lets just not talk about that part of my life.

UND would get the last laugh in 2007. It would come in the West Regional championship game, once again in overtime. This goal was no fluke either. Sioux forward would gather up a lose puck, take it behind the net and have the wraparound of his life, putting the puck behind Frazee and sending the Sioux to the Frozen Four.

Among the many memories of scuffles, triumphs, and defeats, my personal favorite would have to be my very first Sioux Gopher game at the Ralph my freshman year at UND. It was a chilly January Friday, and our first weekend back from Winter break. Like the great UND students always do, I would wait in line for six hours that day, losing feeling in my feet, to get a seat on the glass for this epic battle. Little did I know it would be a game to remember. This game had everything. A lot of big hits, scrums, and great game speed. Oh yeah and a UND victory. What made this game memorable for me though is, then junior defenseman Andrew MacWilliam scoring his very first collegiate goal in his 102nd game played for the Sioux. Being right on the glass right next to where he shot the puck from made it just that much better.

Finally, one can't talk this rivalry without talking the comeback of the decade at the 2012 Final Five. the first 30 minutes of their semi-final match-up was all Minnesota. Late in the second down 3-0, Sioux head coach Dave Hakstol calls the infamous timeout, and the floodgates opened. It would start with a quick goal off of a face-off from Derek Forbort and UND would go into the locker room down 3-1 with one period left. UND would strike quick when Michael Parks would find the twine to pull the Sioux within one goal. While the PA guy was announcing the goal, Brock Nelson would make it a tie game. Minnesota was now playing on their heels and half of the Xcel Energy Center was left stunned. The guy who scored the fourth goal, and game winner couldn't have been more fitting though. The captain, the Grand Forks native, a guy who bleeds green, Mario Lamoureux would make it 4-3 and the comeback would be officially complete. UND would score two more, including one more from Lamoureux to send UND to their third straight WCHA championship.

I will be sharing more of my favorite memories from this historic rivalry as we get closer to the game on April 10th. Feel free to share your favorite memories with me via Twitter @siouxhockey33.

Here's a couple of fight videos, from two ex-UND hockey players that happened to get into fights during the prospects tourney that was held on September 8, 2013. Looks like Andrew MacWilliam was a willing combatant, and I was always wondered if I would ever get to see him drop the gloves. When he was in college the refs always seem to rescue the opposition before MacWilliam got a chance to drop the gloves...

Former Fighting Sioux defenseman Andrew MacWilliam is making an impression on the Toronto Maples Leafs. It also sounds like he has been throwing some punishing checks as well. The Toronto Maple Leafs wrapped up their rookie tournament last night with a 6-2 loss. The Leafs finished the tournament with 2-1 record.

Big Mac

If you want to make Spott smile, just mention the name Andrew MacWilliam.

"Oh boy, he's big, strong and powerful," the Marlies coach said. "He's going to be one of our alternate captains and he's a guy who is full of character. He's probably going to catch somebody early with their head down in this tournament.

"He's just a big, strong man that has an edge. He's going to relish the physicality. I don't think a lot of people know him so he's going to open some eyes here this week."

MacWilliam was a physical force in Toronto's game against Chicago rookies Thursday night. He lambasted Chicago's Chris DeSousa late in the second period with the hardest check of the game. DeSousa left the contest.

MacWilliam, 23, scored two goals and 13 points in 41 games with North Dakota last season to go with a team-high 116 penalty minutes. It is his penalty total - 327 minutes in four seasons - that is the best indicator of what to expect from the six-foot-two, 230-pound Calgary, Alta., native.

In the previous two seasons with the Camrose Kodiaks of the Alberta Junior Hockey League, MacWilliam totalled 350 PIM in 111 games. You get the picture

Friday, March 15, 2013

s/t to @cjzeroUND defenseman Andrew MacWilliam was incorrectly given a five minute major and a game misconduct for this hit on MTU forward David Johnstone. Hopefully the MTU forward Johnstone makes a quick recovery, but word is that he has a separated shoulder.

Saturday, November 03, 2012

This is the video of UND defenseman Andrew MacWilliam's hit on BU defenseman Ahti Oksanen that earned him a five minute major and a game misconduct. [Click to watch video]

From watching and reviewing the video "it appears to be" a shoulder to shoulder hit, It was in my opinion a very questionable five minute major. Of course if you’re a BU fan you applaud the call, if you are a fan of the team in the green and white, you probably don’t like the call very much.

I think that Oksanen should win an academy award for his performance, because the on ice officials bought it hook, line and sinker.

Obviously, the hit was late was but there was definitely a late whistle as well – Oksanen actually shot the puck on the UND net after the whistle. Oksanen laid on the ice like he was hurt badly and then some how miraculously recovered on the bench – well enough of course to come back during the five minute power play and score a goal for BU, his first of his career.

Discussion and thoughts? I thought the officials had a tough night and I am glad that UND is moving on from the WCHA where “hopefully” we won’t have to deal with the Shepherds (X3) or Marco Hunt for that matter.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

One could say that the shoe is now on the other foot – recently there has been a lot of press about our friends to the south at NDSU as their football players had gotten into trouble with the law, when as many as 10 players have been involved as what has been described as a voter petition fraud. Also, one of NDSU’s star linebackers also managed to get two minor in consumptions violations in the last year.

UND wasn’t immune to it either – as we now find out in recent weeks that two of UND Hockey players have gotten cited for minor in consumption charges – one player received his minor in consumption about one week before his 21st birthday – checking the North East court records – it appears that one of the players in question – actually has received two citations for MIP’s in the last four months (4/27/2012 and 8/30/2012).

Some are going to say that, it is what it is… History tells us that college kids; more specifically, college athletes are going to get into trouble with alcohol from time-to-time. What’s more important is said schools response to incident(s). I would think that coach Hakstol probably has everyone attention now. While other fans in the WCHA are yucking it up and having a good time with UND’s expense this too will pass.

So going forward – UND hockey and NDSU football has had a few off the ice/field incidents the past few weeks as well – one school gets out in front of the incidents and responds to them in appropriate manner while the other school makes excuses and provides cover for their athletes.

This morning we find out this that there must have been one hell of a team party – the end result is UND suspending all four captains of the UND Hockey team for the first game against the UAA Seawolves during the Brice Alaska Goal Rush in Fairbanks - sounds like the head coach is holding the captains responsible and this "should" serve as a wake up call for the rest of the team.

As an alumni of the University of North Dakota, I applaud the UND Athletic Director Brian Faison and the head hockey coach Dave Hakstol for getting out in front of this incident instead of letting it fester and give the appearance that UND condones this type of behavior. It should be noted that all four captains are of legal drinking age as far as I know – and at this time there are no charges that have been filed. Details of this incident are sketchy at this time.

GRAND FORKS, N.D. – University of North Dakota Director of Athletics Brian Faison announced today that men’s hockey senior captain Andrew MacWilliam and assistant captains Corban Knight, Danny Kristo and Carter Rowney have been suspended for the opening game of the 2012-13 regular season for a violation of team rules.

The suspensions are a result of a team party on Saturday, Sept. 15.

“The behavior in this situation was unacceptable,” Faison said. “Measures taken by the athletics department do not preclude possible additional measures by the department, or actions by the University or local and state authorities.”

“Recent actions by our team are not a good representation of our place as role models within our community,” said UND head men’s hockey coach Dave Hakstol. “We have young men of high character in our locker room, but our players, and in particular our leaders, must be accountable for their actions.”

In addition to the suspension of the team captains, Faison also announced several additional team disciplinary measures including, but not limited to:

oAthletics Department-issued team probation under which any further violations by a team member could result in immediate reduction of scholarship, suspension from competition, or expulsion from the program.

oThe implementation of a mandatory team community service program

oWeekly team alcohol education programming

UND opens the season on Friday, Oct. 19, against Alaska Anchorage at the Brice Alaska Goal Rush in Fairbanks.

Tuesday, September 04, 2012

Andrew MacWilliam was on the Pipeline show on this past weekend on September 1st, 2012 and this is what the UND captain had to say.

The audio is a little broken up at times due to the cell phone that MacWilliam was talking on. I don't know if it was talking on a Verison cell phone or not... Can you hear me now?

You can listen to said podcast of UND defenseman Andrew MacWilliam and his appearance on the Pipeline Show with Guy Flaming. All you have to do is clicking on this link to the right of this paragraph. Also, you can down load the Pipeline Show by down loading it from ITunes if you want to listen to their show on a weekly basis. [Click to Listen]

Guy asked Mac what it means to be the captain at UND.

“It’s awesome – it’s a great honor,” MacWilliam said.

“Like I have said… there have been a tremendous amount of guys that worn the “C” throughout the years. I have played with two of them – it’s a great honor and an absolute privilege and it’s something that I take a lot of pride and I take very serious.”

“Yeah were excited... We have some good new guys coming in…” MacWilliam said.

"Like you said we have couple of fresh faces in net and that will be good… They’re going to compete hard and have a completion through the week and they’re going to push each other which is going to make everyone better. So they are both good goalies. You have Zane Gothberg that played at Fargo in the USHL and Clarke Saunders that is actually a transfer from Alabama Huntsville.”

Guy asked Andrew MacWillam about the big changes coming to college hockey landscape and college hockey re-alignment. Is it a little bit different because of this being the last year in the WCHA?

"It is, but it’s not a huge thing on our minds – but it’s definitely something that we’re thinking about leaving our mark on the WCHA for North Dakota especially being a senior and our senior class," MacWilliam said.

"I know we have kind of talked about it and it would be kind of nice to be the last ones that MacNaghten [Trophy] and that Broadmoor [Trophy] … and just kind of leave our mark on the WCHA and the University of North Dakota."

During the last segment of the same show - Nate Ewell from College Hockey Inc was also on the Pipeline Show with Guy Flaming and you can listen to that segment by clicking on this link. [Click to listen]

Nate Ewell on the upcoming CBA and the impact on college hockey… Guy asked Nate to give a bit of a perspective from the college hockey point of view.

“A lot of the thought coming out of the last CBA agreement was that it would benefit college hockey because of the rookie salary cap,” Ewell said.

“The sense was okay, it’s not as lucrative now for a player to leave school for example and so they were more likely to stay. Well… In fact, it made it smarter for NHL teams to stock up on young players; more and more often they were signing players out of school early – even a lot of players that weren’t quite ready for it. So from a college stand point, it was bitter sweet to see guys sign and then get stashed in the minors because they weren’t ready. “

“What we are hopeful for with the…first of all we are hopeful that they sign an agreement soon so we can get some NHL hockey back going. Hopefully, it can address some issues that we think could help the college game and really help developmental hockey on a wide scale. Just a few things that we have sort of asked about, is the possibility of assigning deadlines so that colleges can have a sense of what their roster will be you know before say July or August.”

“Some looks at the draft, I know the 19 year old draft has been talked about a lot. We feel like that would benefit college and really benefit the pros because they get another year to look at the prospects before they select them. You know there are any numbers of things that could change and as we see from the last experience a small change could have a big effect.”